Balancing Rights

Living Without Fear Of Violence Should Be Priority

November 20, 1992

Despite the best intentions of people paid to manage local governments and people elected to oversee that work, society is in a tailspin. Violence is the norm. Fear is pervasive. How can it be turned around?

The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission weighed in this week with a good proposal, albeit one that will stir up controversy. Representatives of nine of the 10 jurisdictions that form the commission agreed to seek state legislation to limit individual gun purchases to one per month.

Those who see a direct link between the proliferation of guns and violence will ask why anyone needs to acquire any guns at all, let alone 12 a year. Those who believe only law-abiding citizens buy guns in gun shops will argue that such legislation would infringe upon what they see as their constitutional right to bear arms.

Experts say those two groups represent about 20 percent of the population. The remainder is in the middle - where people recognizing that guns account for increasing violence while holding dear the Second Amendment. That's why most proposed gun legislation envisions limitations instead of elimination.

A bill in this year's General Assembly that would have imposed the same limits suggested by the planning district commission did not fare well. But the time has come to look past the National Rifle Association's powerful lobbyists, who argue that citizens' rights to purchase and own any kind of gun and as many guns as they choose are more precious than the lives of 340 victims of handgun murders in Virginia in 1991. As Gov. Doug Wilder said Thursday, the state needs some gun controls, and the NRA must realize it is not running Virginia.

The killing must stop. The people responsible for keeping civil order believe this is one step toward that goal. Citizens should support them.